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for filling them. Of all the queen's ministers, he CHAP. alone left a considerable fortune to his posterity; a XIII. fortune not acquired by rapine or oppression, but

gained by the regular profits of his offices, and preserved by frugality.

THE last act of this able minister was the con- Agu. 8th cluding of a new treaty with the Dutch; who, after being in some measure deserted by the king of France, were glad to preserve the queen's alliance, by submitting to any terms which she pleased to require of them. The debt which they owed her was now settled at eight hundred thousand pounds: Of this sum they agreed to pay, during the war, thirty thousand pounds a-year; and these payments were to continue till four hundred thousand pounds of the debt should be extinguished. They engaged also, during, the time that England should continue the war with Spain, to pay the garrisons of the cautionary towns. They stipulated, that if Spain should invade England, or the Isle of Wight or Jersey, or Scilly, they should assist her with a body of five thousand foot, and five hundred horse; and that in case she undertook any naval armament against Spain, they should join an equal number of ships to hers. By this treaty the queen was eased of an annual charge of an hundred and twenty thousand pounds.

SOON after the death of Burleigh, the queen, who regretted extremely the loss of so wise and faithful a minister, was informed of the death of her capital enemy, Philip II. who, after languishing under many infirmities, expired in an advanced age at Madrid. This haughty prince, desirous of an accommodation with his revolted subjects in the Netherlands, but disdaining to make in his own name the concessions necessary for that purpose, had transferred to his daughter, married to archduke Albert, the title

Rymer, val. xvi. p. 340.

CHA P.title to the Low Country provinces; but as it was XLIII. not expected that this princess could have posterity, 1598. and as the reversion on failure of her issue was still reserved to the crown of Spain, the States considered this deed only as the change of a name, and they persisted with equal obstinacy in their resistance to the Spanish arms. The other powers also of Europe made no distinction between the courts of Brussels and Madrid; and the secret opposition of France, as well as the avowed efforts of England, continued to operate against the progress of Albert, as it had done against that of Philip.

CHAP. XLIV.

State of Ireland-Tyrone's rebellion-Essex sent over to Ireland-His ill success-Returns to England-Is disgraced-His intrigues-His insurrection-His trial and execution-French affairsMountjoy's success in Ireland-Defeat of the Spaniards and Irish-A parliament-Tyrone's submission-Queen's sickness-and death-and cha

racter.

TH

1599.

Ireland.

HOUGH the dominion of the English over c H A P. Ireland had been seemingly established above XLIV. four centuries, it may safely be affirmed, that their authority had hitherto been little more than nomi- State of nal. The Irish princes and nobles, divided among themselves, readily paid the exterior marks of obeisance to a power which they were not able to resist; but as no durable force was ever kept on foot to retain them in their duty, they relapsed still into their former state of independence. Too weak to introduce order and obedience among the rude inhabitants, the English authority was yet sufficient to check the growth of any enterprising genius among the natives: And though it could bestow no true form of civil government, it was able to prevent the rise of any such form, from the internal combination or policy of the Irish.a

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MOST of the English institutions likewise, by which that island was governed, were to the, last degree absurd, and such as no state before had ever thought of, for preserving dominion over its conquered provinces.

a Sir J. Davies, p. 5, 6, 7, &c.

THE

XLIV.

1592.

CHAP. THE English nation, all on fire for the project of subduing France, a project whose success was the most improbable, and would to them have proved the most pernicious, neglected all other enterprises, to which their situation so strongly invited them, and which in time would have brought them an accession of riches, grandeur, and security. The small army which they maintained in Ireland they never supplied regularly with pay; and as no money could be levied on the island, which possessed none, they gave their soldiers the privilege of free quarter upon the natives. Rapine and insolence inflamed the hatred which prevailed between the conquerors and the conquered: Want of security among the Irish introducing despair, nourished still more the sloth natural to that uncultivated people.

BUT the English carried farther their ill-judged tyranny. Instead of inviting the Irish to adopt the more civilized customs of their conquerors, they even refused, though earnestly solicited, to communicate to them the privileges of their laws, and every where marked them out as aliens and as enemies. Thrown out of the protection of justice, the natives could find no security but in force; and flying the neighbourhood of cities, which they could not approach with safety, they sheltered themselves in their marshes and forests from the insolence of their inhuman masters. Being treated like wild beasts, they became such; and, joining the ardour of revenge to their yet untamed barbarity, they grew every day more intractable and more dangerous.

As the English princes deemed the conquest of the dispersed Irish to be more the object of time and patience than the source of military glory, they willingly delegated that office to private adventurers, who, inlisting soldiers at their own charge, reduced provinces of that island, which they converted to

b Sir J. Davies, p. 102, 103, &c.

their

XLIV

1599.

their own profit. Separate jurisdictions and princi- CHAP. palities were established by these lordly conquerors: The of power peace and war was assumed: Military law was exercised over the Irish, whom they subdued; and by degrees over the English, by whose assistance they conquered: And, after their authority had once taken root, deeming the English institutions less favourable to barbarous dominion, they degenerated into mere Irish, and abandoned the garb, language, manners, and laws of their mother country."

By all this imprudent conduct of England, the natives of its dependent state remained still in that abject condition, into which the northern and western parts of Europe were sunk, before they received civility and slavery from the refined policy and irresistible bravery of Rome. Even at the end of the sixteenth century, when every christian nation was cultivating with ardour every civil art of life, that island, lying in a temperate climate, enjoying a fertile soil, accessible in its situation, possessed of innumerable harbours, was still, notwithstanding these advantages, inhabited by a people whose customs and manners approached nearer those of savages than of barbarians.d

As the rudeness and ignorance of the Irish were extreme, they were sunk below the reach of that curiosity and love of novelty, by which every other people in Europe had been seized at the beginning of that century, and which had engaged them in innovations and religious disputes, with which they were still so violently agitated. The ancient superstition, the practices and observances of their fathers, mingled and polluted with many wild opinions, still maintained an unshaken empire over them; and the example alone of the English was sufficient to render the reformation odious to the prejudiced and discontented

Sir J. Davies. p. 133, 134, &c.

d See Spenser's Account of Ireland, throughout.

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